Ilion High School - Class of 1878

Ilion Sentinel - January 18, 1953

First Ilion Woman Doctor Dies at 95

Article 2

First Ilion Woman Doctor Dies at 95

ILION - Dr. Jennie Richardson, 95, long retired physician and the first Ilion woman to enter the medical profession, died early today at Ilion Hospital after, fracturing her hip several weeks ago in her home.

Services, arranged by C. J. Applegate A Sons, will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday from her home, 317 W. Main St., by the Rev, Paul Hydon, pastor of the First Methodist Church, Scotia, with burial in the family plot In Armory Hill Cemetery.

Surviving are two nephews, Thomas Shepherd, Ilion, and Arleigh Richardson, Columbus, O.; a niece, Mrs. George Thurston, Middleton, Conn.; four grandnephews, Thomas Shepherd II and Colin Shepherd, both of Ilion; Arleigh Richardson III, of Columbus, O.; Richardson Thurston, Middleton, Conn.; and a grand niece, Molly, of Columbus, O.

Dr. Richardson saw almost a century of progress, not only in the work of medicine, in which she was intensely interested, but in all other phases of American life, She kept abreast of community, national and international events almost to the end by extensive reading and broadcasts.

She ceased practice 53 years ago in New York after her father's death here and returned to reside in the family homestead with two sisters, Mrs. Lillian Shepherd and Miss Carrie Richardson, both now deceased.

Mrs. Shepherd, the wife of Dr. Lucien Shepherd, prominent Oswego physician, had returned to Ilion at the time of his death a year earlier. All three sisters, graduates of Smith college, were active in community affairs.

Mrs. Shepherd was instrumental in arranging the gift of Ilion's library from the Seaman family and was secretary-treasurer of the library board until her death several years ago. She helped organize the first Ilion PTA and helped to start playgrounds for children.

Miss Carrie Richardson who died a few years before Mrs. Shepherd, was library board president many years.

Dr. Richardson was born May 11, 1862 in Frankfort, daughter of Thomas and Harriet Dygert Richardson. She moved with her parents to the western outskirts of Ilion when but two years of age. In 1872 her father built a large brick mansion on West Main St., where she had continued to make her home in recent years with a nephew, Thomas Shepherd, and his family.

Her father came to America from England in 1854 and taught various valley schools while studying law. Admitted to the bar in 1861, he opened a law office in Frankfort. After moving to Ilion, he became an attorney for E. Remington and Sons, the National Bank and Driven Well Co.

Arleigh Dygert Richardson, a brother of Dr. Richardson, was a Yale graduate and also well known Ilion attorney.

Dr. Richardson graduated from Ilion Academy in 1878, one of a Class of 12, then spent two years in Wellesley College before entering Smith where she received her bachelor of arts degree in 1884.

For four years she served as a substitute teacher of Latin and history in Ilion schools and then went to a South Norwalk school as acting principal. In 1889, not fully satisfied at teaching, she entered the Women's Medical College of New York Infirmary for Women and Children, a pioneer institute of its kind.

Prejudice ran high against women doctor's as in other fields women were entering then. When Dr. Richardson received her medical degree in 1892, there were 40 women graduates. she interned in the out-patient department of the infirmary and was there during New York's worst epidemic of measles among children. There were no wonder drugs then, she recently recalled, and "children died like flies."

Later she opened her own Office on 75th St. in New York and in 1900 when her father died, returned to Ilion with her mother, expecting to return to New York and did so for short periods but gave up her practice entirely in 1905. She never transferred her license from New York to Herkimer county.

Her interest in medicine, however, did not subside because she was not actively practicing. She took part In establishing Ilion Hospital, a gift to the community from Henry Harper Benedict. For 30 years, from the hospital's dedication in 1908 to 1947, Dr. Richardson served as president Of the Women's Associate Board.